Broad Beans

Yep!  It's the modest little legume I am writing about today, not about my ISP or download speeds...

as food is another important passion of mine, but one which I probably have been blogging about too little about.  Food is one of the influences in my work.   I can honestly say good food makes me happy :)

When I was little, my parents owned a villa in what was then a rural village in Malta called Fgura.  My dad's business was prospering and we moved into a villa in the fields with a semi made road for access.  Mum had a sizeable garden as well as a pool and at Easter time ( that's when broad beans get to season with the warmth there) we used to have the first taste of the produce from the gardens there.  Spring onions, early tomatoes, a taste from some Kumquat fruit and lots of crunchy baby broad beans to add to our crunchy rustic bread spread with tomato paste and lovely olive oil. 

Having had my first taste of broad beans this season earlier today took me a long way back.... back to my childhood when I learnt to appreciate tastes, colours and emotions, and my holiday times were spent curled in a corner reading volume after volume of historical novels  and splashing in the pool in the baking hot summers - all stuff that has influenced the way I see the world and ultimately affected my photography.

The taste of fresh broad beans reminded me of a  wonderful broad bean and goats' cheese risotto eaten at Nicolino's in Emsworth after a lovely time at Goodwood last year... mmm, a lovely rustic broad bean soup eaten at La Fontana in Edinburgh

Going back to the succulent, crunchy and very modest broad bean, hardly even given a nod by shoppers passing by the veggie stall....

Many people don't bother preparing their food today, thousands of shoppers dwell in the take away and the ready made food sections in supermarkets every day. They might think they appreciate cuisine, but they aren't ready to go into the bother of preparing it, they aren't open to getting down to cooking, trying new things, new tastes, to make up new recipes with what's left in the fridge.  To appreciate the difference between a product and another, the difference in quality between an item that's prepared to strict standards and one that's not.

I put in a lot of research into everything I do. I like to get to the point of perfection in most things... I like to construct images like I would be constructing a recipe.  I build up complementary foods to get to the taste I am looking for, that lovely lingering taste that embeds in the neurones and recalls lovely memories when it tingles the taste buds.

That's how I like my images, lovely, cooked at the right point, leaving a lush taste that becomes a beautiful memory, a lovely thought to think about and smile.

I hope that is the effect my work gives you....

now... back to my crunchy broad beans and lovely thoughts... :)